Man sets self on fire in middle of UW campus

Police say motive for fatal act is unknown

TOM PAULSO, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

By TOM PAULSON, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Thursday, October 30, 2008

Investigators and medics investigate the scene and attend to a 61-year-old man in the ambulance after he set himself on fire in crowded Red Square at the University of Washington on Thursday. The act stunned hundreds of students that witnessed the event as classes were letting out.
Photo: Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Investigators and medics investigate the scene and attend to a...

An investigator picks up a pair of burned jeans after a 61-year-old man set himself on fire at the University of Washington on Thursday.
Photo: Joshua Trujillo/Seattle Post-Intelligencer

An investigator picks up a pair of burned jeans after a 61-year-old...

A 61-year-old former employee of the University of Washington died Thursday after dousing himself with gasoline and setting it afire in a crowded central plaza on the UW campus known as Red Square.

Students and onlookers reacted quickly to try to help the man and put out the flames before police and paramedics arrived just after 1 p.m.

"I was right there as he fell to the ground," said Tom Yang, a 21-year-old international studies undergrad at the UW. Yang, who served in the Air Force and was trained in emergency medical assistance, was among those who initially tried to put out the flames using their clothing and a few water bottles.

"The flames were 7 or 8 feet high, so it wasn't easy to get close to him at first," he said.

Police said they didn't know why the man set himself on fire.

"A lot of people just seemed to think it was a huge bonfire for fun or something," said Rachel Lipsy, a 21-year-old oceanography student. "Then I saw this guy just roll out of the fire. Oh, my God. Some people immediately tried to put the flames out, but it wasn't working."

Kaye Kovacs, a graduate student studying library and information science, said she saw the incident from the third floor of Odegaard Library overlooking Red Square. Kovacs said the fire seemed to come mostly from the man's backpack, as if it contained gasoline.

"He just stood there as it burned," she said. "He didn't look like he wanted anyone to put it out."

Yang said two other people who, along with him and another witness, gave statements to the UW police, saw the man just before he set himself on fire. He said the couple told police they saw a young man try to prevent the victim from dousing himself with gasoline. But the older man shoved the young man away, Yang said, causing the would-be good Samaritan to slip and fall in the gas spreading across the bricks. The older man then lit himself on fire.

In addition to using their clothes and water bottles, Yang said, two people also retrieved fire extinguishers from nearby buildings. After finally putting out the flames on the victim, he said, they tried to extinguish the smoldering gas can the man had used to douse himself.

"It sort of blew up, but everybody had cleared the area around the can by then," Yang said.

The whole incident took place in just a matter of minutes, he said, before UW police and paramedics arrived. According to the UW police, the victim was still alive when he was taken to Harborview Medical Center with severe burns but later died at the hospital.

The UW did not identify man beyond saying he was a former staffer. The UW said he was not a former professor, which one person who commented online at Seattlepi.com indicated.

His identification is pending notification of next of kin and identification by the King County Medical Examiner's Office.

Robinson said there were no planned activities or political events in Red Square before the incident. Yang said there were no protest signs, but said another man at the scene -- partially clothed after having used his own clothing to fight back the flames -- was bowing and praying loudly over the victim.

"I don't know what that was about, but it reminded me of the Vietnam War," Yang said. "We kept asking him to stop, and eventually some people dragged him away."

Red Square was cordoned off with yellow tape and closed for more than an hour by police after the incident.

Police said the man wasn't close to others when he lit himself on fire. No other injuries were reported.